America, Where Is Your Grace?

There are times - and this week was one of them - when good people ought to exhibit grace and generosity. When they should - at the very least - hold their tongues and refuse to speak ill of the dead or infirm.

Was it asking too much for people on both sides of the political chasm in this country to simply react to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hospitalization and the deaths of Rep. John Lewis and Herman Cain with compassion and generosity?

Apparently it was.

I suspect the status of Justice Ginsburg’s health is a hot topic of conversation for both Democrats and Republicans who know just what’s at stake when she retires from the Supreme Court or passes away. She is, after all, in fragile health. Agree with her or not, Justice Ginsburg was a trailblazing lawyer who’s remained active and engaged on the Court despite the sort of health problems that would sideline most ordinary folks. 

When word went out Wednesday that Ginsburg had been hospitalized again, there was a mean-spirited flurry of posts on social media speculating on her prospects for recovery.

Would it kill partisans to simply show a little class and give the justice credit for her tenacity and sharp mind and wish her a return to good health? At a time when most of her contemporaries are well into retirement, Justice Ginsburg may be the hardest working 87-year-old in the country.

Then, when news broke Thursday that successful businessman, Baptist preacher and two-time presidential candidate, Herman Cain, 74, had died of Covid-19, gleeful ghouls on the left celebrated his death, saying he and others who complained about masks deserved the same fate.

The attacks on Cain were vile and vicious. I won’t link to those social media posts because they border on pornography. Trust me when I tell you that a horde of haters celebrated Cain’s demise and wished Covid deaths on the president and all of his supporters.

Herman Cain deserves better. He grew up in Atlanta, the son of a domestic worker and a janitor. He was a canny businessman who was a vice president at Pillsbury and Burger King and was eventually named CEO and Chairman of Godfather’s Pizza. 

Cain sought the Republican nomination for president in 2012 and 2016. His warmth, intelligence and sense of humor endeared him to many. 

At the same time that Mr. Cain was being savaged on Twitter and Facebook for the crime of conservatism, hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of Rep. John Lewis, 80, a civil rights icon who died of pancreatic cancer. While former President Barack Obama’s eulogy was more DNC talking points than tribute, the service itself was moving and the other tributes to Lewis highlighted his many accomplishments.

Lewis was one of 10 children born to Alabama sharecroppers. He grew up to become a leader in the U.S. Congress. Lewis was active in civil rights while in college and was one of the original Freedom Riders who risked their lives to protest segregated public transportation.

Congressman Lewis’s story is inspiring. He will be studied and revered by American school children for years to come.

While one was conservative, the other liberal - Cain and Lewis are both American success stories. Black men who walked different paths, saw the world through different prisms, but managed to achieve spectacular levels of success in their fields.

If nothing else in this last week of July, we’ve been reminded of the fleeting nature of life.

It would do the country good to honor these three remarkable Americans - two deceased, one in frail health - without regard to their politics.